People of Faith Encourage Candidates to Address Disability Concerns
April 11, 2016 | Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, Director of Interfaith Engagement, AAPD
On February 23rd the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), along with the Texas Disability Project, Disability Rights Texas, and other disability advocacy groups launched the national REV UP America — Make the DISABILITY VOTE Count campaign.
REV UP stands for Register, Educate, Vote, Use, (your) Power. The REV UP campaign is promoting the growing influence of the disability vote nationwide while working to ensure access to the polls on Election Day for Americans with disabilities.
The Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition, a program of AAPD, is mobilizing people of faith to sign a letter encouraging candidates to address disability concerns in their campaigns. The letter notes that Americans with disabilities “make remarkable and valuable contributions to our communities,” yet, “continue to face discrimination in many areas including employment, transportation, and education.” The letter encourages candidates for public office to address these disparities and set forth a “vision to encourage the civil rights of people with disabilities, and to promote their full inclusion in society.”
Faith communities have long encouraged their members to engage in responsible citizenship, including voting, and many serve as polling places on Election Day. Through its involvement in the REV UP Campaign, IDAC seeks to build on these efforts by encouraging candidates for public office to make a greater effort to engage the concerns of the disability community. It is our hope that in doing so, the American experiment of self-government increasingly includes and reflects the voices, concerns, and wisdom of people with disabilities.
